didn't view Rogaine as a serious drug; the campaign didn't impinge negatively on their practice and didn't really challenge their view of prescription medicine being exclusively in the physician's domain. In fact, the Rogaine campaign actually helped diminish some of the negativity surrounding DTC at the time. DTC Goes Prime Time In January 1992, Super Bowl viewers saw a momentous event in the evolution of DTC advertising: the airing of the first DTC ad on such a major television program. The advertiser that took this step was Merrell Dow, with a 15-second reminder spot for the nicotine patch Nicoderm. Nicoderm had just launched into the market, as had three competitors. This marked the beginning of a six-month advertising battle among the four nicotine patch manufacturers, which was dominated by reminder spots with brand name mention but no reference to tobacco use or smoking cessation. More than $100 million was spent in the biggest competitive battle the industry had ever seen. And while sales skyrocketed for the nicotine patch category initially, they later fell just as rapidly, partly because the advertisers paid insufficient attention to the important factors of behavior modification and patient support so essential to smoking cessation. But this highly visible spending war, coupled with the continued aggressive marketing of Rogaine, finally lowered the barriers of many physicians' resistance to DTC. Another factor that diminished the physician-led controversy over DTC was the proposed Clinton Health Plan, followed by the market-driven move to managed care. Ultimately, however, it was the evolution of several market trends, each contributing to increased consumer
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